


Convergence

by caretta



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: A Scalypant of Robins, Gen, M/M, Spin the Bottle, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-09
Updated: 2014-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:40:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25458673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caretta/pseuds/caretta
Summary: Inspired by Lverin’samazing art.A cute Dickie-robin, a playful Jayrobin and an exaggeratedDamian, thank you very muchare stranded together during a time-whizzing storm. There’s of course boy-kissing.
Kudos: 3





	Convergence

The storm had raged for over four hours. Smell of sulfur in the rain, which hadn’t slighted one bit is such a long time - meant the eye of the storm might not even be moving, and a golden pentagram sometimes visible in the sky all pointed to this storm being abnormal at best. Like Grayson would say, he “smelled” magic, which put this in the hand of Zatanna or Captain Marvel. That eased Damian considerably, at least he wasn’t missing out on any important fight.

Before he was whisked here by a portal that came out of nowhere, Damian already had had an eye on the strange clouds rapidly forming over Boston, Massachusetts with an increasing diameter. By the time he had deemed it fit to report to father, it had formed a perfect eye (perfectly still) over Boston, with clouds stretching all the way to New Jersey, Gotham of course included. A shame he was affected by whatever storm magic before he could reach father. Five minutes later, he landed in exactly the same place he had stood in the Cave, all communications down, external cameras showing a circle made of white fog surrounding the stormy manor with nothing beyond visible, and two kids in outdated Robin uniforms.

So he was to wait out this storm in an isolated alternative version of his home while magicians and occultists are having a giant _something_ four hundred and sixty kilometers away from Gotham? Boring, but bearable. Add babysitting to the mix? He’d rather sit with Drake.

No, that could actually be worse.

The first two hours were used to thoroughly inspect the manor. He then met with the two “Robins” by the burning fireplace in the guest room, with similar results: they really were the sole occupants of this (hopefully) temporary time-place, and that trying to pass that circle into the fog might not be a good idea. Damian hid a slight burn on his left forefinger, the boisterous kid lost a glove, and the youngest of them came back with a limp, his foot without the ridiculous pixie boot had a burn running on the outside, even reaching his ankle.

Damian must say he was impressed. Contrary to his experience with “normal” children, his two guests didn’t just wait in the Cave when he went up to survey their situation, didn’t cling to him or each other, knew to gather in the most strategic place (warm fire, back and ceiling safe from attack, plenty of escape routes, accessible food and water supply near by. Or may be just the fire.), and especially didn’t cry when he helped them treat their burns. Of course one of them couldn’t sit still or shut up, the other asked for “Bruce” as if expecting _Batman_ to sweep him into a gentle hug, but Damian supposed as the future Batman he should be generous with children.

On the other hand they knew father’s secret identity, and wasn’t afraid to dispatch more information when they made sure the others all knew the same. They turned out to be Grayson and Todd, the question was, from when? Grayson – Richard? Dick? – was eleven, and had served by father for a year. Todd was thirteen.

So their resourcefulness came from them being his predecessors… Well Damian had patrolled Gotham during Halloween, forgive him for not immediately recognizing kids in varying combination of red-green-yellow-black as his colleagues, even though he had memorized their adult facial profiles.

He could see what a pretty boy Grayson had been even at this age. Damian was half-tempted to tell Todd he’d grow up to be a loser, but was quickly reminded of _how_ he’d lose this noisiness – thirteen, that’s one more year – and felt so sick he had to change the subject.

Which ended with the three of them in a circle in front of the fire place, watching closely a spinning bottle of Burgundy. Damian agreed to this out of some sense of (misplaced, he agreed) pity for Todd, but this seemed stupider by the minute. Todd was overjoyed to introduce G—Dick, he refused to call this child the same name as Grayson, to a form of entertainment most enjoyed in birthday parties by children not busy being Robins or having Batman as a guardian. Dick’s eyes were large when he listened to Todd explaining the simple rule, Todd himself said he had only heard but never played, though Damian saw a glint in his eyes when he reassured Dick: “Chillax, I’ll teach you.”

If he absolutely had to confess Damian had never heard of the game before Todd brought it up. Todd’s roundabout ways of laying it out, however, could only fool a small child at Dick’s age (tt he became Robin at age 10 too? Seems inflation affected even the values of the Robin chair.) Damian was fourteen, he knew what kissing was. He had, after two days of reading every document available for some one with access to Batman’s computer, knew kissing could be taken to much higher levels, and when used in conjunction with certain other acts in nigh unlimited positions could lead one to achieve a certain high. He had not the chance to test half of what he read, but when he would become Batman and for some reason would have to maintain a playboy façade similar to fathers’, he thought that knowledge would be necessary.

This certainly seemed a time to continue testing them out. Oh, and if he was to kiss something cute dressed like a parrot (really father, what were you thinking?), he might as well also confess: that tingling sensation in his loins that prompted him to do research in the first place, was the sight of Grayson one twist before landing, blue shorts soaked through and clinging to his round, firm asscheeks. Damian had that image imprinted in his teenage head, taught himself twelve meditation techniques to use during training with Grayson from then on, discovered twenty ways to find relief once he returned to his room after, and told himself a thousand one hundred times that his attraction to Grayson could be explained by factors such as proximity, early exposure, limited social interactions, prolonged partnership,… and would slowly fade once he made connections to children his age more meaningful than these short “tests.”

He just hadn’t got down to yet, and now this wretched storm ruined everything by putting this young Grayson in front of him – a Grayson who had not even reached puberty, whose lines have yet to lengthen into his adult counterpart, his skin still baby smooth and all the athletic training have yet to force all the chubbiness out of him; a Grayson less experienced than Damian himself, who would not treat him like a child; who was younger, and thus wouldn’t say what he imagined Grayson would should Damian ever asked him out: “I’m too old for you, Damian.”

Logically, there’s nothing stopping him from kissing this Little Grayson. Quite the contrary, the thought of possibly being the first one to kiss Dick, and that he would carry that “first” and grow up to be Grayson, excited Damian like nothing else. It was that he felt slightly bad to take advantage of a young child, he would think himself better than Todd who had been considering Dick’s pink lips before he volunteered to be the first to spin, as if planning out a tasteful treat.

Todd’s face fell. Damian looked down, just as the bottle’s mouth went past the middle-point between Dick and him, and finally paused at his knee.

Huh.

Todd adopted a challenging look in place of disappointment. Good, he wanted no misunderstanding about what was going to happen. They both had eyes on the grand prize, this was simply a chance to test out the competition.

Todd crawled across the small circle, stopping in front of Damian to look directly into his eyes before smirking and leaning in. Damian knew someone who learned mostly through published research like himself couldn’t have that look, or that smoothness. Todd seemed practised, like he did enough of this to turn it into a game. He was trying Damian out with his usual routine: small, wet nips followed by bolder movements that made smacking sounds, tongue running on his lower lip and the occasional graze of teeth which Damian admitted was all pretty nice. But then he found Damian’s weakness and completely took over, in between Todd’s tongue learning sensitive spots in his mouth and diving for his tonsil, Damian suddenly realized – this was not what he wanted Dick to see.

Dick was watching them raptly, eyes wide and cheeks staining crimson. With Todd’s turn he could teach Dick all the dirty tricks, Damian couldn’t stop him then. But he knew he wanted to make a certain impression to Dick, if not for Dick’s first kiss then for the first kiss he gets to share with Dick Grayson, and he wouldn’t be able to if Dick saw him continuing to tongue-wrestle like an animal with Todd.

So Damian took control, gently dislodging Todd’s tongue and after some more exchange of saliva returned it to the mouth it came from. From then he made their kiss increasingly closed-mouthed, until one moment Todd realized they had spent ten seconds just grazing lips like a perfectly innocent chocolate box art. After failing to reestablish dominance Todd finally pulled back, eyes burning an unpleasant promise to Damian’s skull. Damian smirked in acceptance, both of them wiping their mouth with their glove rather than licking it. Todd had faint, but recognizable tobacco smoke at the back of his throat. That should say something Damian couldn’t quite grasp, but he quickly turned to wondering how Dick would taste. Better, that much was certain. Sweet, probably, seeing that his cup of hot chocolate was nearly empty. Damian didn’t care for childish drinks and Jason paid more attention to the bottle of wine.

Todd and him let Dick have his turn without saying a word. Even if it was Damian’s turn it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but letting Dick choose was symbolic. He would be damned before he kissed Todd a second time.

Dick still seemed a bit stunned, like it really was his first time seeing a kiss like that. His face ran red then pink periodically which suggested he was replaying the whole scene in his head, the tip of his ears never stopped burning. Just then, Damian noticed Dick was sitting sideways and turning his upper-body in instead of folding his legs like Damian and Todd, his hurt leg hugged close to his chest, the other stretching out on the thick carpet, yellow and orange firelight dancing on creamy skin like a sunset’s hue. Damian always wondered how his predecessors could afford to go out let alone fight crime in such outfits, but unlike Todd who moved so carelessly as if he desired to show the whole world his underdeveloped trunk, Dick had a different, effortless way of carrying himself, just like – yes, the grace of an acrobat, Grayson, right. He was starting to think may be this outfit coupled with said grace made more criminal trip over themselves than was strictly legal. Damian could sense a frantic lesson from father somewhere, but for the life of him couldn’t stop staring to care.

Dick’s eyes’ reflected the spinning bottle. A shame after the third hour power also went down and this fireplace was their only source of light. No matter, Damian could picture Grayson’s eye and their radiance right then, clear as day. He knew how they looked in Grayson’s files, when he pulled back the cowl, when he again put on his Nightwing mask, when he smiled, when he woke up between Damian and Titus, sleepy but happy that Damian didn’t bolt in the middle of the night. Dick’s eyes are bigger on his face, clearer, lacking a decade to make them the shade of Grayson’s. It suddenly occurred to Damian that this Dick may not even grow up to be his Grayson, given that Grayson never mentioned getting stranded in a magical storm and kissing future Robins.

The bottle pointed to Jason.

Damian was hardly surprised. The rare times he considered it, fate had a way to make what people wanted to happen happen, and Todd certainly wasn’t lacking in want. He realized despite his initial impression of Todd, kissing Dick like a show of techniques would be the last thing on Todd’s mind. The first one was Todd’s way to prove himself – that he was in control, that he wasn’t helpless – but with Dick, Todd would want what Damian would want. If there was a first time, it should be Dick’s first time kissing Damian Wayne or Jason Todd themselves, not what each of them want the world to see.

Damian felt trusting. He hardly believed it himself, but he felt he could trust Todd with Dick’s first kiss.

And then, in a whimsical way only explainable by itself, fate gave the bottle whatever magical momentum to spin a little bit more.

They were three Robins from different periods, playing spin-the-bottle in a different dimension, waiting out a magical storm. Even though he wasn’t involved in the main event, if magic decided for the third time that night to interfere with his fate, who was Damian to say no?

Damian thought letting Dick come to him would be better than scaring the boy like Todd’s crawling might have, but then he remembered Dick was hurt. He compromised by sitting next to Dick, putting an arm around Dick’s back and one below his knees to gently reposition him so they sat with their side to the fire. That way Todd could see the kiss clearly - for some reason Damian thought that would be fair. After all, Todd proved himself a worthy opponent.

This close, Damian could see the tiny hair that made Dick’s cheeks seemed like they were glowing. Of all the little Dick things Damian was trying to commit to memory (when will he get another chance to see a tiny Grayson?) - the smell of children’s shampoo, his soft pink fingers that were tugging nervously at a strand on the carpet, his heart beating madly in anticipation that Damian could hear right where he was,… - it was Dick’s eyelashes that struck the point home. They were short, where he were used to Dick’s lashes being a bit long for a man, and only then it hit him just how far removed yet how alike Dick was to Grayson. He was only eleven at the moment, the distant tragedy Damian read in files was for him a fresh wound, bare healed after a year. Yet there Dick was in his Robin suit, fighting beside father. Alfred once told him Dick was more than a partner to father; he was a son, a friend, a brother, a ray of hope shining into that dark corner his father locked himself in that even Damian sometimes felt difficult reaching. Dick would become Grayson, he knew, but at that moment, even with those regrettable fish scales, Dick seemed more worthy of his respect than ever. No need to think of Grayson, or how pretty Dick looks (though that’s a bonus because Dick looks really, really nice), he just wanted to kiss Dick Grayson, all of him, right now.

Behind their knees Damian wrapped his hand around Dick’s slightly cold fingers, causing them to stop fidgeting. Todd could look at the kiss, but the way Dick squeezed Damian’s hand when their lips met, were for Damian and Damian alone.

***

Damian didn’t meet Grayson two weeks after he was returned home unharmed, the storm having disappeared just as mysteriously as it formed. The day he stepped into the kitchen when Grayson was helping Alfred set the table, Grayson immediately tripped, stubbed his toes and spilled Alfred’s perfect fish velouté sauce.

***

Damian never asked Red Hood where he learned to kiss so sensually at such an age, not when they butted head, not even when he packed up and followed Todd around a few months as [Rook](http://sprucegoose.tumblr.com/post/6791089875/damian-wayne-as-rook-rook-is-the-sidekick-to) after he stopped being Robin. When he was old enough to understand Todd’s haunting look those last minutes they sat silently by the fire, he simply shared with him a smoke, then they went back to patrolling. It connected them much better than talking but slightly less than Dick, anyway.

***

Damian should know it was _Grayson_ he was dealing with. If it wasn’t “I’m much older than you”, of course he’d hang a kiss they shared as _time-displaced teenagers_ over their heads to make Damian chase him _four goddamn years_.

***

During that time Damian practised kissing as much as possible. If there was one thing Todd taught him, it was real battles beat sparring exercises, hands down.

***

Damian had no idea how it happened.

May be the storm merged that stray dimension with their existing world creating a new timeline, where the ex-Robins suddenly remembered what happened.

May be it was always meant to be, and could be explained by several time loops and calculations that Damian would be happy to lay out tomorrow, if Todd would be willing to double his Batman shift, which he doubted.

Looking over Dick’s exhausted form, Damian saw Todd giving him a thumb up before pulling the comforter over all three of them. Damian felt it was quite stupid to pick apart the reasons when they turned out to him such a lovely result.

In conclusion, even though he doesn’t practice it, only believes to the point of its existence, and limits his need to use it as much as possible, allow Damian to say: Magic? He was a big fan.

End.

**Author's Note:**

> Some notes to clarify things:
> 
> \- This storm is the event “[Convergence](http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Convergence)” of [Weirdoverse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weirdoverse) mentioned in [_Sandman: Fables and Reflections_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman:_Fables_and_Reflections). It shouldn’t make sense, I just like the idea of guests from different time, place and dimension stuck in one place and trading kisses.
> 
> \- I use a personal modified timeline. In their “current” timeline Damian is 14, Jason 19 and Dick 21, hence after “4 years of chasing” Damian gets with Dick at 18-going-19.
> 
> \- More on Rook as Damian’s post-Robin moniker [here](http://hughes-hercules.livejournal.com/2206.html?thread=13214#t13214). There’s [also fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/92034), though it has nothing to do with this fic. I simply adopted the Rook concept since it’s close to what I think Damian will choose, and much better developed.
> 
> \- I took some of Jason’s characterization from Neil McCormick in _[Mysterious Skin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysterious_Skin)_.


End file.
